


Elmax One Shots!

by LoverNotaFighter06



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy’s still an jerk in these, F/F, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:15:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23550661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoverNotaFighter06/pseuds/LoverNotaFighter06
Summary: A collection of one shots for the ship of Elmax (with background Byler every once ‘n a while)
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	1. Hurt/Comfort (#1)

"Where were you?" Billy demanded coldly as Max opened the door to the living room. Her mother and Neil weren't here, right now, leaving her alone.

With Billy.

With _Billy_.

"Uhm.." Max gulped. She'd been at the arcade with the rest of The Party, she decided on lying. "Skatepark." Billy sent a glare towards the skateboard under her arm, before glaring at Max again.

"You know what happens when you lie to me, Max." His voice was cold. He had just finished a cigarette.

"I'm not lying, Billy." She insisted. Billy grabbed her right arm, tightly, causing her skateboard to drop to the hard floor beneath them. Max's breath instantly quickened as Billy lit another cigarette.

"Breaking your precious skateboard ain't enough apparently, _Maxine_." He took a short drag, before taking the cigarette out of his mouth. Max's eyes widened. She knew what was coming.

"Billy," she pleaded, "Billy, don't—" Before she could get the rest of the words out, the burning end of Billy's cigarette met her wrist. Max tried to yell, but her step-brother just used his other hand to smack her. She silently cried, the tears burning at her ocean blue eyes and freckled cheeks hurt almost as much as the fire that was marring her skin. Billy only pulled away for a second, moving the cigarette to her other wrist. Billy only stopped fully after making more marks down her arms and when his cigarette was now only a stub.

"FUCK YOU!" She flipped Billy off, sobbing openly now. Max pushed her way to her room. She slipped a long-sleeved jacket on before quickly packing a bag, slinging it over her shoulder.She stormed back down the steps, grabbing her skateboard before booking it down the street.

Her speed continued its soft increase, scared that Billy might be following her. Scared someone would do worse. She just kept running where her thin legs would take her, hoping they wouldn't give out and she'd crumble. She felt so close to that, but then she saw a log cabin, running quicker to it, realizing it as a very familiar home. She finally got there, eyes threatening to spill over again as she knocked on the door.

She heard the noises of soft footsteps from behind the door before she saw the doorknob turn. There before her stood the tall-ish figure of someone so familiar to Max. Short, curly brown hair hanging just above her shoulders. Piercing, dark eyes and a soft smile playing on her lips. It was easily recognizable as Jane "El" Hopper, The Party's mage and Max's best friend. She hadn't attended the meet-up that started this whole mess, but Max had always turned to her brunette best friend before. This was no different. Sure, she'd never told her about Billy's abuse, but now, she could.

"Maxie...?" El cocked her head to the side, eyebrows furrowing. "Max, why are you here so late?"

"Um... I can't tell you out here." Max felt a tear slide from her now clenched shut eyes, before Max looked up at her. Max sniffled. "Can I come in?"

"Of course. Be quiet, though. Jim's sleeping." El gently grabbed the arm that didn't hold the bag and skateboard, (not noticing Max's wince of pain), tugging her into the cabin and then her room. El closed the door, allowing Max to settle herself on the bed before she sat beside the redhead.

"What happened?" El was gentle, wrapping an arm around the slightly shorter redhead's shoulders. The Mayfield girl pulled away, before slipping off her jacket. El noticed the cigarette burns on her arms, a small gasp tumbling out of her mouth. She gently took Max's arm, seeing the girl wince as she did. El gently ran her fingers across the girl's heavily freckled arm, now marked with dark spots that mingled with the red dots on her arms.

"Billy, my step-brother, got mad, Ellie. He decided to... he pressed his cigarette against my wrists and arms. Hard." Max was crying again, and it startled El. Max was the strongest person El knew, and she rarely showed any tears, or even a sad look. El looked at her friend with soft eyes, her heart hurting as Max continued to cry.

"God... I'm so, so sorry, Maxie..." El reached out, cupping Max's cheek with her hand, brushing the falling tears away. "It's gonna be okay, Max..."

Max just let out a loud sob, falling into El's arms. Her head burrowed quickly into El's chest, just laying there, her arms wrapping around El. El held Max up slightly with one hand, the other switching between stroking Max's hair and her arm.

Max continued her crying, and it mayn't have been a good time to notice, but she noticed she really liked- no, loved Max. It wasn't like she was attracted to Max crying, not at all. But, thinking back to how much she wants Max happy. Thinking how nice Max is to her, and how many times she'll let her vent to her with an easy smile. She wants to see Max and her smile, that cute smile that El loves to see. Her eyes, her soft red hair, the wrinkle of her nose while she laughed. El loved all of it, and she just thought of it as Max took a few breaths to calm down. She wiggled out of El's grip, giving a tentative smile.

"I'm better now." Max gave a soft smile, accompanied by a blush. "Thanks to you."

El responded with a bright blush. She then took a minute, watching Max with her head tilted. Her gaze was focused on the soft curls of the redhead's hair. Perfect chance for a compliment, El thought, before she reached her hand forward and tugged on a loose strand of Max's hair. "Pretty." El complimented softly, watching as the other girl's cheeks became tinged a color rivaling a color very much like the hair El was praising.

"Pretty? My hair? Thanks! Yours is.."

"No." El mumbled, moving her hand from Max's hair to Max's face, both of her hands now resting on Max's face. "You're beautiful, Maxie..."

El pressed her lips against Max's own. Max pulled back in shock, while El just questioned quietly, mentally, why she did that.

"Why-why did you do that?" Max questioned, hiding her flushed face by resting her head on one of her hands. El tried biting her lip to stop any answer from slipping out.

"Because I like you!" El blurted out, surprised that her vocal cords would betray her with a secret she had long kept hidden. Her master plan didn't work, she noted, mumbling a curse. The blush, now prominent on her face, darkened when she said this. Max's blush got somehow even deeper as she thought of what to say next.

"Are you gonna say something?" El asked, worried that Max doesn't like her back. If Max didn't like her, who would?

Max, not even thinking that much before doing so, kissed El, sparks immediately flying (figuratively) between them as El kissed back, surprised at the action of her companion.

Max's lips were soft, and they tasted like the cherry lipstick she applies almost every time she and El hang out. On Max's end, El's lips tasted of peach, no doubt from the chapstick El applies endlessly.

Max pulled away first, eventually, and smiled a bit, saying, "Was that an okay answer?"

El smiled as well and hugged Max tightly, relieved that the redhead likes her back. El's convinced that this is the best day ever. And El didn't even have Eggos! 


	2. Kinda Hurt/Comfort for a Sec but Mostly Just Softness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max is thinking again. El knows how to cheer up her girlfriend.

She sat with El on El’s bed, it was normal, just two girls together watching TV. But Max’s mind raced...

Max Mayfield knew one thing about being in love. One, it should be Lucas she’s in love with, it was society’s standard, and Lucas certainly did like her. Secondly, it wasn’t that simple sometimes. Jane “El” Hopper was the only person Max had eyes for, and, unless the last five months of dating had been a dream, El only had eyes for her, too. 

That didn’t stop Max's mind wandering if El asked Will constantly about how Mike was doing. Or always asking if  _ Mike  _ could join them. And Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike. It was a song Max had heard too many times, and frankly, she’d prefer if her girlfriend stopped singing it. It’s not that she hates Mike Wheeler, she’s just insecure. She’s scared El would leave her for Mike Wheeler, she loved him first, after all.

Even since she was just ten, her mom was always making comments, talking down on her tomboy-ish outlook. “You’re so pretty, but you never dress up.” “Why not hang out with other girls for a change?” “Come on, Maxine, (Max still hated when people called her that), please dress up?” 

It didn’t make Max feel any less insecure, if anything it made her insecurities skyrocket. What if El left her because she didn’t look pretty enough? Or she didn’t do things like normal girls? Or she screwed up royally just like Billy told her she would when she came out to her family. What if someone like Neil makes more comments about how much of a fat pig she is? What if someone makes El aware that Max is nothing but a gross excuse of a human, who doesn’t deserve her- or anyone else’s, for that matter- love.

Without thinking, a tear rolled down her cheek. And then another. And, before she knew it, the girl she had been sitting with pulled her into her arms. Hugging the girl fiercely, but with a gentle tenderness Max had learned to know. 

“I’m okay, El.” Max insisted quietly, leaning her head back against her beloved’s chest. “I promise you, it’s okay. Just remembering some not-so-nice things, that’s all.” Max tried to smile up at her, feeling a bit of relief as El carded her hand through her red mane of hair. She leaned into El’s hand, smiling softly for real now.

“Honey… what not-so-nice things? Like me remembering the bad men from the lab?” El questioned, propping her chin on the top of Max’s head. The Mayfield girl quietly considered, before nodding a bit.

“I guess you could say so, yes. I just… I can’t calm down sometimes. Billy and Niel, my step-brother and step-dad, they’re kind of… distant. They say things that hurt me, and do things that hurt me. And, sometimes, if they’re bored, they tell me to just… find a way that’s the closest to death. So they don’t have to bear the burden of me! I was so close sometimes, El!” Max let out a heavy cry, tugging on her sweater sleeves. El sighed, just leaning down enough so her lips could peck Max on the forehead. 

“You’ll be okay, honeybee. Everything’s okay. I’m here now, you’re safe from harm. I promise- they’re not coming back. Billy’s in prison, remember? They took him away for abusing you. Neil… he’s out there still, I know that. But if he dares even trying to lay a finger on you, I’ll beat him!” El flopped back against the pillows, Max joining her slowly. They laid there for a few seconds, before El stood up, grabbing her iPhone.

“Ellie?” Max cocked her head to the side, red hair creating a wave over her shoulder. “Babe? What are you doing-?” Before Max could finish the rest of her sentence, a slow song was softly humming it’s way out of the Bluetooth speaker in El’s room. Max blinked curiously, tilting her head to the side as El reached out her hand. 

“C’mon, not gonna sit there and leave me out here to just dance to a slow song alone, are ‘ya? Plus, I know you think the bed is cold without me laying there, too.” El let a smirk tug at her lips, watching as Max blushed, only slightly. El found pride in the fact she was the only one who could ever make Max Mayfield blush. Max took El’s hand, and she was now tugged onto her feet, and into the arms of the brunette. 

El’s hands easily fell onto her waist, as Max put a hand on El’s shoulder to steady herself. El smiled at her softly, as they spun in circles around El’s small room, Max bumped against the wall several times, the girls erupted in giggles in response each time.

“Reminds you of when I first kissed you,  _ doesn’t it?”  _ El wiggled her eyebrows, Max blushed bright before they both giggled again. Their first kiss had been awkward, honestly. El pushed Max against the wall in Max’s room, almost as if it’d been rehearsed, and kissed her with a soft ferocity that Max could never tire of. She probably had learned that from  _ Mike _ , but maybe that was the one good thing Mike did.

“And what if it did, El Hopper?” Max smiled, lifting a hand to run through El’s short, honey brown curls. El chuckled, playfully narrowing her eyes at Max. They were still swaying in time with the music, but this moment was all their own. 

“I’d be willing to kiss you.” El grinned, Max rolling her eyes softly in retort. 

“Don’t have to be smooth to ask for that, dork.” Max laughed lightly, before joining their lips softly. El sighed against the redhead’s lips, savoring the taste of strawberry lipstick against her own lips, which tasted of peaches to Max. They kept spinning in slow circles, as soft chirping of music played in the back.

Max put her hand against the taller girl’s chest, pushing away, before smiling. “Alright, Ellie. I’d love to continue kissing and dancing, but I think we’ve deserved some cuddle time?” Max stuck her bottom lip out before El could even try to sway her. El couldn’t say no to Max. Especially not when her girlfriend was looking up at her through long lashes with big puppy eyes and her bottom lip sticking out to form the whole ‘kicked puppy’ look? She couldn’t take it. She sighed, turning off the speaker, before grabbing Max’s hand and heading to the bed. 

She plopped down first, quickly followed after Max, who must’ve darted off in the fraction of a second to her bag, because she was now clutching a Wonder Woman comic.

“Max Mayfield, it is 2020…” She looked at the flimsy comic and chuckled. “Yet, you still read ‘em the old fashioned way.” El teased lightly, earning an eye roll as her girlfriend sat beside her.

“I’m a collector!” She huffed, resting her head on El’s chest as the girl wrapped a soft arm around her shoulders, playing with the red hair that flowed on it. Max took a breath, starting to read the comic with a smile, but by the end, her eyes were heavy. The light blue was contrasted with dark sleepiness traveling through them. El chuckled, pulling the comic gracefully out of Max’s grip. 

“It’s time you got sleep, baby.” El said simply, moving to wrap both arms around Max from behind, smiling as she spooned her. Max let out a small whine when her comic was taken, but it was overrun by a yawn. Max cuddled her head deeper into El’s chest, smiling as she felt a kiss to her forehead. 

“G’night, honeybee. Love you.” Max heard El mumble as her eyes drooped close. She mumbled in her sleep as response, turning so her face was now buried in El’s chest, only the back of her head being seen. 

Max didn’t know, and if she was awake, she wouldn’t have cared.

In times like these, when bad thoughts came in, but El held her. The world stopped. Mike stopped. Billy screaming and hitting her stopped. Neil forcing her to say she was the cause of his problems as he kicked and hit her and cut her hair when she 

“misbehaved” was gone.

There was just El. Only El.

If it were only El, the world would be perfect.

  
  
  
  



End file.
